When the first week of the Green Cup Challenge came to a close, results for the first round were officially announced. Of the 32 schools participating in the Green Cup Challenge, St. George’s School managed an astounding 25% energy reduction for first place, followed by Miss Porter’s School and The Governor’s Academy.

Although Choate was not among the top five on the list, the statistics show that the school certainly did not do a bad job; Choate finished the first week in a solid ninth place with an energy reduction of 13.1%. Choate beat Deerfield Academy (25th place, 1.4% energy reduction) and prevented about 39,561 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. Taken all together, the schools participating in the Green Cup Challenge saved an average of 7% of energy usage per school. However, not all the news was good: four schools—Hotchkiss, Wilbraham and Monson Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, and Lawrenceville—actually increased their energy usage this week by an average of 8.3% per school. Exact reasons for their high electricity use are not known, but expected campus events probably played a role. For example, NMH recently put a new building into commission, causing an increase in electricity usage.

Katrina Linthorst Homan, one of the organizers for the Green Cup Challenge, thought that the first round “really went well for Choate.” “But,” she added, “There is always something more we can do to conserve.” Ms. Homan mentioned that some people are still not fully invested in the challenge, still preferring to leave their lights, computer, or music on when they are not needed. She says, “There are always people that don’t care about the cause, but [for the other people] it does still make a difference. That’s why we have to keep spreading awareness.”

On the job of raising awareness, our Green Cup committee has done an excellent job so far, starting with the student-produced movie starring Paul Ryder. When this short movie played at a school meeting, it was received with applause and became instantly popular among the Choate students. Josh Muniz ’10 said, “It was so funny!” and commented on the likelihood of the film raising awareness. Sadly, Ms. Homan answered that there will probably be no sequel to the first because of the amount of time required to make such a film.

In what may turn out to have been an unintentional contribution to the effort, the dishwashing machine malfunctioned in the Hill House dining hall last week, causing the whole school to switch to plastic and paper utensils. The breakdown sparked some rumors in the student body: a few students speculated that it was the work of the Green Cup Committee to raise awareness for saving energy by not washing dishes; Others pointed out that using paper plates and plastic utensils is just as wasteful. Ms. Homan agreed with the latter, saying that no matter how you look at the issue, it evens out: using less electricity but wasting more resources, which also required energy at the production stage. The dishwasher incident was not a fabricated idea to save energy for the school.

Now, the second week of the cup starts and the committee has new plans for student activities and programs to promote energy use reduction. Next week, a movie titled “Kilowatt Ours” will be played, showing how our kilowatt hours can affect the world. Also, several environmental clubs will give presentations in the dining hall concerning ways to be “green,” and facts will continue to be posted daily on the Daily Notice. Finally, the Green Cup committee is thinking about organizing a Valentine’s Day Candlelight Dinner.